Geraldine “Jerry” Emmett was born in 1914, before women had the right to vote. On Tuesday night, the 102-year-old honorary chairwoman of the Arizona Democratic delegation helped cast a ballot to send Hillary Clinton on her way as the first female candidate from a major party in a presidential election.
Clinton was formally nominated as the Democratic candidate after a roll call of the states in the Philadelphia arena. And in a tender moment, the centenarian joined her state’s 85-member delegation, which split 51 for Clinton and 34 for her Democratic rival, the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.
“I’m Ruben Gallego from Arizona, the beautiful state, the natural state. We’re proud to say that we’re the home state of Cesar Chavez, home state of many native tribes, home state of electing some of the first women leaders in this country,” the congressman said. “And I am proud to be joined here by Jerry Emmett, age 102. Madame Secretary, Arizona casts 34 votes for Senator Sanders.”
Gallego handed the microphone to Emmett, who leant forward with a wide grin.
“And 51 votes for the next president of the United States of America, Hillary Rodham Clinton,” she said, as the crowd erupted in cheers.
Emmett, the star of the Arizona delegation and a lifelong Democrat, was six years old when women earned the right to vote in the US and remembers the moment when her mother cast the first vote of her life.
“We all walked out in the middle of the street and cheered, like they’re cheering here – because my mother was going to get to have a say,” Emmett told USA Today. “That was something.”
Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP
Emmett has attended several conventions and has served as an official delegate in the past, though this year she is an honorary delegate. Clinton won the Arizona Democratic primary, held on 22 March. Political experts are eyeing the traditionally conservative southwest state as one that might lean towards the Democratic candidate in an election year if the Latino electorate turns forcefully against the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.
Emmett met Hillary Clinton earlier this year when the former secretary of state campaigned in Phoenix, she told the Phoenix New Times during an interview at her home in Prescott, Arizona. They posed together for a picture, with Emmett holding a sign that read “Centenarian for Hillary”. Clinton held a sign that read “101 years young and voting for Hillary”.
“I surely didn’t plan to live past 100 years old,” she told the New Times. “When I did, and I saw all these things that were happening, it was like I had a shot in the arm.”